Open letter to the Great Sioux Nation and to all Native Peoples of North America, from the Pan-Galician Druidic Fellowship.

Dear Friends,

We have been following your struggle at Standing Rock, where you are protecting the Land and Water endangered by the so-called Dakota Access Pipeline. Likewise, we have witnessed the brutal aggressions and disproportionate reaction to your rightful claims and stance.

We know there is not much we can do from this side of the Atlantic other than to express our honest support with gestures such as this letter, and trying to raise awareness about your situation.

Still, you can be assured we do this having known ourselves the dispossession of our own Land, the abuse and desacralisation of our holy places, the colonisation at the hands of foreign powers, the subjugation of our culture, language and ancient heritage. Indeed, this has happened and continues to happen in Europe.

From a religious perspective, we share the pain of knowing that nothing less than Water is being stained (the Sea, and by extension all Water, is one of the three Celtic Realms).

From an environmentalist perspective, we share the worry of knowing how contamination affects all living beings, how much damage and death it can cause (Nature is most sacred and revered, and part of our beliefs and ethics are based on a wider understanding of Nature).

From a social perspective, we share the belief in the need for open civic involvement, active participation and self-organisation, thus engaging and empowering our Communities (we consider Community and a “hands-on” attitude to be of the utmost importance and fundamental to our practice and daily life).

You must know that your current predicament – in spite of these trying times – will forever be a glorious example of determination, dignity and pride. You have already accomplished that, and this will continue to happen with all just claims of Native Peoples in both North and South America and in all the World (lest we forget the ongoing Mapuche conflict and many others; the Condor and the Eagle might truly be flying towards each other now). It is, after all, a common struggle against the same imperialistic greed and patronising despotism, the same monster taking different forms in different places under different names.

All in all, and even if this is the only message we can manage to convey, we want you to know that you will find kindred spirits even in the places you would have suspected the less. You are certainly not alone in your prayers and thoughts for a better, fairer and more prosperous life in the same Land that housed your Ancestors – your Land.

That is what we want for ourselves and that is what we wish for you and all Peoples.

Quoting a fragment of our National Anthem:

Os bons e generosos The good and generousa nossa voz entendem, Our voice do understand,e com arroubo atendem And eagerly they hearkeno nosso rouco som; To our rough sounds;Mas só os ignorantes, But only the ignorants,e féridos e duros, And barbaric and hard,imbecis e escuros Those foolish and darknão nos entendem, não. Do not understand us. They do not.

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